11.6.09

PROBLEMATIC PROBLEM SOLVING ISSUES:

To keep eve-teasing at bay, four Kanpur girls degree colleges have banned students from wearing jeans, tight tops, sleeveless blouse, high heels, tight fitting clothes in the campus.

Source: TOIIf you are a girl in Kanpur, you can’t wear jeans to college., Dayanand Girl’s College, affiliated to Kanpur University, began moral policing by restricting its students from wearing western outfits on the campus. A notice to this effect was issued before the start of theacademic year.

Source: One IndiaWe can’t overlook the safety of students. A dress code would check eve-teasing to some extent and also ensure that girls don’t waste their time selecting what clothes to wear," Jamal said.

We have had innumerable discussions on the Blank Noise blog about clothes. provocation. harassment. and 'asking for it'. Without further delay here's what we ask you to do:SEND ONE GARMENT YOU WORE WHEN YOU WERE SEXUALLY HARASSED, OR 'EVE TEASED' ON THE STREET. YOUR GARMENT IS YOUR WITNESS. SAY OUT LOUD " I NEVER ASK FOR IT "

13 comments:

It will be interesting to know that, girls in Kanpur, were never eve teased before wearing jeans or tight clothes.On other note, it would be interesting to note that girls who dress traditionally are not eve teased.

This is not a solution, but just turning your back to problem.

This is like if you are hit by speeding car, the driver will be not blamed, but the victim because he was crossing the road.

thank you so much for bringing to attention that it is time to address male behaviour. We have just started this new blog:http://blanknoiseguy.blogspot.comand we are looking for men to write about street sexual harassment/ boundaries etc.

Many colleges in Chennai have a dress code after Anna University imposed one in 2005. In professional colleges, only salwars and kurtas with a dupattah are permitted. In unisex colleges, the code is more flexible but there is a strong code none the less. T shirts and sleveless clothes are practically taboo in many colleges here. There have been many public debates and protests over the dress codes but none of the instituitions have removed the restrictions.The surprising trend is the amount of the students who claim to understand where the authorities come from. Many accept the instituitions word that it's 'for our own good'.

And yeah, some colleges have officially stated that the dress code is present to prevent the boys from being distracted.

Frankly, after three years of trying to reason with the management, many students have given up the whole thing. We thought there might be a change when the University got a new VC, but he too insisted on the formal dress code.

This 'solution' creates a whole new bunch of problem without actually solving the original 'problem'.

The reasoning behind such a dress code is really crazy when you think about it.

First of all, if we look at the term "Eve Teasing" and then think about the actual definition of "to tease"

–verb (used with object)1. to irritate or provoke with persistent petty distractions, trifling raillery, or other annoyance, often in sport.

Last I checked, sexual harassment is neither petty, trifling, nor simple annoying, and maybe for the guys its 'in sport', but last time I checked women don't think the men are 'joking around' with them.

I think using the term 'eve teasing' in and of itself tries to lessen the seriousness of harassment against women.

While studying Hindi in Jaipur, I was once given a sheet of English sentences made by my Indian teachers to translate to Hindi. One sentence was "The girl surrounds herself with eve teasers and lovers". The teacher did not seem to understand why so many girls objected to this sentence, and started to giggle when we all got upset.

Now on to clothes, the idea that removing western clothes from a campus with also remove harassment (Oh! I mean 'teasing'!) suggests that before western influence, women were never harassed in India! I'm sure that in rural villages where gives only wear salwar suits or saris, women NEVER get harassed, right?

This whole dress code is a smokescreen times two. First, it again puts the blame of the 'teasing' on the girl-- questioning her character through her choice of dress. Second of all, it ignores that 'eve teasing' is an Indian phenomena, not something coming from outside/western influence. (While at the same time, we of course have to admit that harassment of women happens worldwide!) This double smokescreen allows colleges for example, to continue to do nothing more than blame girls-- blame western influence-- etc for the problem, rather than look at the real issues at hand. Ah, but you know, it is just 'eve teasing'-- those boys are just joking around anyways, right?

hi everyone , i would like to add that i have been to kanpur several times and few of my friends study ova there in various colleges . the situation over there was bad from a long time . i called up my female family friends who are still in colege and they told me that they have never stepped out after 7pm without someone accompaning them . people talk so much about how information tachnonlgy has developed and how industrial revelution etc in kanpur . there about 8 shopping malls in kanpur , despite all this the govt hasnt done the basic thing to protect its people . there are no proper transport for college girls . no poloce people deployed esp outside the kanpur univ .

I personally think that a girl looks more decent in a jeans t shirt . and the kanpur authorities should do something for eve teasing menace than just play around

@ Katheeja- could we get documents that describes the dress code?the 'for your own good' argument does not surprise me because that is precisely what we have been dealing with all our lives. come back home on time " its for your own good". " wear a duppatta" its for your own good.doing 'so much good' seems to have allowed unpardonable behaviour.

i can understand that garments could be perceived as culturally appropriate or inappropriate but who is to create the norm of that place?

the college rules again assume that only women in jeans etc get harassed

assume that male attitudes cannot be addressed- 'boys are like that only'Boys will remain like that because of such rules- where all the focus is on blaming women instead. its time we got our society to address being 'provoked' as a male issue. being provoked to do what? to behave how?

I wrote a long post on my blog regarding this. I feel that we need to, loudly and pointedly ridicule these norms and clothing rules and chastity belts imposed on women. Decent civil discourse will not get us anywhere. We need to do something like the pink chaddi campaign. Incidentally, even though these things are basically calling ALL men rapists, they are not being perceived as being offensive by them